The Keeper. Part 1. An Invitation

The doctor returned about forty-five minutes later holding the cursing, wriggling cat tightly under one arm.

‘Let go of me, you big elephant! You’re holding me too tight! Where are we going? Where’s Arthur? What’s this place? I don’t like it. You smell funny!’

Handing him over as quickly as he could, the doctor took out a tissue and began to wipe the bloody scratches on his hands.

‘I was manhandled, I tell you! No pleasantries—they just came in and grabbed me as if I were a common mouse or something!’

‘Cat, calm down,’ whispered Arthur, putting him down and then picking him up.

‘Oh, no, don’t you start!’

The cat wasn’t used to being picked up by anyone.

‘Shh, listen. It’s going to be hard for me to talk to you here. I can hear you fine, so I’ll nod or shake my head if you ask me a yes or no question, but if you want to talk more, then I’ll have to pick you up like this. Do you understand?’

‘Yes, yes, now put me down… No, wait! What are we doing here?’

And after filling him in on what had happened, Arthur placed the cat onto the chair.

‘So, go on, tell me, they think I’m like your lucky charm don’t they?’ he purred.

‘Lucky charm? You didn’t really just call yourself that, did you?’

‘Sure. How else do you explain my needing me to be here?’

‘Honestly, Cat, the things you come out with.’

‘Arthur, are we ready to do this again?’ asked the voice across the tannoy system.

‘Yes.’ He nodded.

‘Okay, everyone, clear the room, please. Dimming the lights now.’

Having already decided to sit on the floor again, Arthur cupped the box in both hands and slowly raised it into the air.

‘Arthur?’ said the voice, after he appeared to just be staring at it.

‘What? Yes, sorry, I’m ready,’ he replied. ‘<<Open! Open!>> <<Open!>>’

This time, the box flew straight out of his hands and froze several metres above him. Snapping open, just like it had done at the cottage, it filled the room with light before plunging it into darkness seconds later.

‘Yes! We did it,’ he cried, turning to congratulate the cat. ‘Hey! What are you doing over there?’

He could just make out a pair of ears poking over the edge of the platform.

‘What do you mean what am I doing over here? Honestly, I would have thought that it was obvious. I was finding a better place to study the map.’

‘Yeh, right, sure you were.’ He grinned.

‘Listen, buster, you can grin as much as you like, but as of this exact moment, I’ve just officially become a lucky charm, hero, eighth wonder of the world. Feel free to pick any or all of the above, because whatever you think, that box ain’t gonna open without me!’

Arthur rolled his eyes.

‘You’re definitely a wonder, Cat. But don’t you think that it’s really weird that it only opens if we’re together?’

‘Not really.’

‘Why not really?’

‘Because you could only talk to me, and I could talk to you and the fish. So…’

‘So?’

‘So, I’m obviously like a golden key or something.’

‘A golden key?’

<<‘Yep, cross my whiskers and hope to die, stick a mouse tail in my eye.’>>

‘But it still doesn’t explain why it only opens if we’re both here.’

‘Sure, it does.’

‘It doesn’t.’

‘Yeah, it does.’

‘Cat, it doesn’t!’

‘Suit yourself! But it does.’

‘Aaah! Well done, my boy!’ beamed the doctor, the first to emerge from the glass wall. ‘You did it!’

‘Thank you,’ said Arthur, handing the box back to him. ‘Doctor, what it shows, it’s a map isn’t it? To get to those planets with the writing next to them?’

‘We believe so, my boy, we certainly believe so.’

‘But what I don’t understand then is that even if it is a map, it’s never going to be possible to get there, is it? I mean, I read that we don’t have the technology for space travel, and that even if we did, it’d still take lifetimes to be able to get anywhere.’

The doctor smiled at him approvingly. ‘This is of course an excellent and valid question and one which deserves a serious answer. But just not at this moment, if you please,’ he replied, hearing the general coming over and turning to shake his hand.

‘Good job,’ said the general, shaking Arthur’s next.

‘Thank you.’

‘Hey! Look at you, lapping up all the glory. I haven’t heard my name being mentioned once yet,’ came a disgruntled meow.

‘Cat! Shh,’ Arthur hissed.